Patient Participation Group

Patient Participation Group Report 2015

Click here to download our 2014/15 Patient Participation Group Report (.docx)

Patient Participation Report 2014

Angel Lane Surgery currently has a very active Patient Participation Group (PPG). We feel the practice is very well represented by our group. We currently have a total list size of 9225 with 7608 of these being aged 16 and over. Our PPG currently have 8 active members who meet regularly throughout the year (see website for minutes of meetings). We have 2 members in the 45-54 age group (representing 0.14% of our practice population at that age group) and 6 members over 65 (representing 0.3% of our practice population at that age group). 6 female members (0.15% of our female practice population) and 2 male members (0.05% of our male practice population). All of our members have an ethnic origin of White British (representing 24% of our practice population of that ethnicity). One of our members is a Carer (1.3% of our patients that are carers) and 6 have long term conditions (0.2% of our patient population with long term conditions). We are currently trying to recruit some new members and would ideally like some in the younger age group and perhaps one from a different ethnic group. We are doing this by asking patients who attend the practice. We have previously tried to recruit younger members but have unfortunately not been successful.

The annual patient survey (see copy of survey on the website) was devised in discussion with the PPG members. It was similar to last year but it was decided to add in a few new questions this year in relation to current issues. The survey was given out to 250 people and we had 200 responses. This was given out at the reception desk, the dispensary and in the waiting room over a period of a week during both morning and afternoon surgeries to encompass patients who had come for emergency and routine doctor appointments and routine nurse and healthcare assistant appointments. By giving it out at dispensary we also included patients who had come in to the surgery just for collection of prescriptions or medication, they did not necessarily have or need an appointment.

Results

The full results are published on our website but this is a summary of the findings.

Patients are generally happy with our current opening times. A few people stated that they would like us to open at weekends or in the evenings and this is perhaps something we will look at in the coming year when the changes in the NHS contract are issued to see if this is a viable option for the surgery.

Our reception and dispensary staff were mainly thought of as being excellent and the doctors and the nurses during their consultations were mainly good or excellent.

Our appointment system does appear to be working well with most people rating it as good for both same day appointments and future appointments. We increased our number of appointments following last years survey and this is something we constantly look at, assess and adjust throughout the year.

Most patients make contact with the practice via the phone system and rate their ability to get through as being mainly fair. Again this is something we have worked on this year following last years’ survey to try and improve. We have changed our telephone system to enable a short queue. This was due to some patients liking a queuing system and some not, due to the cost of waiting. Therefore a shorter queue was put in place so that nobody would queue for a very long time, it would be an engaged tone if the queue exceeds its limit. We have also changed our telephone message, requesting patients to telephone between 8am and 10am only for urgent matters and appointments for that day where possible to try and reduce the call volume during these very busy times. We have also recruited a new member of staff who once trained up will be dedicated to answering the phone only, 5 days a week. We continue to constantly monitor the phone system and make any possible changes when necessary. The results show that the majority of the practice population have not viewed our website and very few patients make contact with the practice via the internet (booking appointments and ordering prescriptions). We will therefore this year promote our website more and encourage more patients to use the internet for booking appointments to try and reduce some of the pressure on the phone system.

It was very encouraging that a lot of patients are aware that they can access the pharmacy for advice on certain conditions and we would like to promote this even more by having posters in the waiting room and the receptionists advising them when they call requesting an appointment for one of these conditions.

The results show that the patients would like to receive information about the surgery via our patient leaflet, website and the newsletter. We currently do use all these mediums but will try and post more on the website.

Overall, the majority of patients feel that the service is better or about the same than a year ago.

We are delighted that we have completed the extension this year that the PPG were very much involved with, from fundraising to advice and even the building work. This has given us 2 new consulting rooms and a conference room. This has enabled us to become a teaching practice which is an extremely fulfilling experience for the whole surgery.

The PPG continue to help us with future projects. We are hoping to build a shelter for mobility scooters and are looking into improving our entrance to help with access for the disabled and parents with prams etc.

Action Plan

On discussion with the PPG at a meeting on 25th March 2014 (minutes will be available on the website) we came up with the following points to work on over the next year.

Appointment System

We discussed the possibility of introducing a minor ailment clinic during the morning clinic that patients could book into when phoning for an urgent appointment. This could include patients with complaints such as ear and eye infections, sore throats etc. The patients would see one of the senior Practice Nurses who have strict guidelines to work through under the instructions of the doctor but of course able to consult with the duty doctor when necessary. This would relieve pressure on the doctors appointments in the morning. The PPG very much liked this idea and were keen for it to be implemented as soon as possible. We hope to achieve this by July 2014, so that it is up, running and any problems ironed out before the busy winter period begins in the autumn. This will be managed by the Practice Manager and the GP Principal.

We are going to have another registrar joining us later in the summer as another of our GPs become a GP trainer. This will give us more appointments per day.

As last year, we will continue to constantly monitor the ratio of "on the day" appointments and "routine" appointments and review as necessary. This will be in discussion with the Senior Receptionist and the Practice Manager.

Telephone System

As stated in the results we have recruited a new member of staff as a telephonist. Her training is going well. On discussion with the PPG we decided to have her working upstairs away from the reception area to answer the phone to maintain greater confidentiality and increase efficiency. This should be in place by 1st May 2014 and will be led by the Practice Manager. If this works well, we will increase it to 2 telephonists upstairs during busy telephone periods (8-10am) and have 2 receptionists downstairs to deal with patients at the front desk

Website and online appointments

In the survey it showed that the majority of patients had not looked at our website but a large proportion wanted to gain information from the website. On discussion with the PPG it was therefore decided that we would do a publicity campaign to promote the website. The surgery staff will create a prominent display in the waiting room at the surgery and outside the dispensary telling people about the website and encouraging them to go online and have a look. We were asked by the PPG to be more proactive in putting notices on the website about upcoming issues. The Practice Manager will do this from now on. It was also noted that some of the photographs on the website are out of date and so we will update these too

The PPG felt that it would be beneficial to promote the use of booking appointments online and therefore we will include this in the display. Although we have quite a large proportion of patients registered to do this, they mainly just use it for ordering prescriptions and not for making appointments. It was noted however that although this would not suit everyone as not everyone has a computer, the people that could use it would reduce the demand on the telephone system. We will aim to have the display in place by July 2014. The Practice Manager will lead this project.

We would like to say a very big thank you to our PPG for there all their hard work, dedication and support to us all at Angel Lane Surgery it is very much appreciated.